The PLANS research library has acquired the
five volumes of *Beitrage zur Dreigliederung des sozialen Organismus:
NS-Dokumentation*, a German-language collection of documents
relating to Anthroposophy, Waldorf education and the Nazi party,
edited by Arfst Wagner. Documents date from 1933 to 1992. Many
are facsimile reproductions of correspondence between Waldorf
schools, the Waldorf school association, and National Socialist
officials. Prominent names include the education official Baeumler,
Himmler, Hess, Goebbels, and Haverbeck.

I don't read German, so I can only guess that
this collection may contain some exculpatory material about the
struggle of the Waldorf schools to survive during the Nazi period.
In scanning the documents, however, my eye cannot help but light
on some things that don't look very good, like letters from Waldorf
schools and the school association that close with "Heil
Hitler!" There is an issue of the Biodynamic Agriculture
newsletter featuring a picture of Hitler with some children on
the front page.

The PLANS research library has acquired
the five volumes of *Beitrage zur Dreigliederung des sozialen
Organismus: NS-Dokumentation*, a German-language collection of
documents relating to Anthroposophy, Waldorf education and the
Nazi party, edited by Arfst Wagner. Documents date from 1933
to 1992. Many are facsimile reproductions of correspondence between
Waldorf schools, the Waldorf school association, and National
Socialist officials. Prominent names include the education official
Baeumler, Himmler, Hess, Goebbels, and Haverbeck.

I don't read German, so I can only guess that this collection
may contain some exculpatory material about the struggle of the
Waldorf schools to survive during the Nazi period. In scanning
the documents, however, my eye cannot help but light on some
things that don't look very good, like letters from Waldorf schools
and the school association that close with "Heil Hitler!"
There is an issue of the Biodynamic Agriculture newsletter featuring
a picture of Hitler with some children on the front page.

-Dan Dugan

You probably have not experienced the struggle
to get educated in the middle of a deadly terror regime. The
slaves in the old South who wanted to read and write may be a
pointer.

When Norway was occupied by the Nazis, all
school teachers were asked to sign a promise to teach Nazi ideology.
Most of them refused and were subsequently arrested and sent
to a prison camp in Kirkenes in Finmark, where they incarcerated
with Russian prisoners. One of these disobedient teachers was
my aunt's husband, who described it to me first hand.

My father's second wife Sonja once told me
what it was like to go to school during the occupation years.
The history teacher had drilled the students for unexpected visits.
The history books would be hidden under the desks immediately
and replaced by propaganda-edited history - re-written history
- from Nasjonal Samling (the Norwegian Nazi Party under Quisling).
I don't know to what extent they had to do salutes etc., but
it was not as bad as in Germany and Austria.

The point is that Sonja's history teacher
trained the students to pay lip service to the Nazis in order
to protect their illegal curriculum. What you seem to be trying
to do, Dan, is to use this kind of defence technique as practiced
by the Waldorf school in Stuttgart, Germany, where conditions
were a lot worse and more dangerous than in Norway, as some kind
of testimony against the integrity and moral ethos of the school's
staff. That is really stretching it - by a long shot. The alternative
would have been for the teachers to speak out against Hitler
loud and clear, and accept the deadly consequences for themselves
and abandon the needs of the children.

The PLANS research library has acquired
the five volumes of *Beitrage zur Dreigliederung des sozialen
Organismus: NS-Dokumentation*, a German-language collection of
documents relating to Anthroposophy, Waldorf education and the
Nazi party, edited by Arfst Wagner.

Tarjei answered to this.

Nevertheless I would like to mention that
Arfst Wagner has beed publishing a lot of critical material about
the anthroposophical movement. He is the publisher of Flensburger
Hefte, a monthly paper, in which he and publish research, interviews
and documentary articles about the various branches and themes
of the anthroposophical movement.

You are shooting yourself into the foot if
you mention Arfst Wagners publications like a finding of new
dark, so far secret evidence against Waldorf schools. ***WALDORF
TEACHERS AND OTHER ANTHROPOSOPHISTS*** are the people investigating
problematic issues in the history of the anthroposophical movement.
One of the goals of Flensburger Hefte has always been
to bring EVERYTHING into light, including the publishing of critical
views about anthroposophy. In my view a good example of critical
introspection.

Maybe Bruce will tell us more about it after
his visit to Arfst Wagner.

In scanning the documents, however, my
eye cannot help but light on some things that don't look very
good, like letters from Waldorf schools and the school association
that close with "Heil Hitler!"

Dear Dan,

I am sure that you have read enough history
or seen enough movies to realise that EVERYONE in Germany had
to say "Heil Hitler" in those days, including school-teachers
in official letters. Whether they meant it or not cannot, necessarily,
be gleaned from the content.

Today we are lucky with freedom of speech,
and are allowed to say almost what we like - although I believe
treasonous remarks are still best avoided!

As to the content of the volumes mentioned
I will scan them to see if I can quickly translate a letter with
the "Heil Hitler"! I have not got the volumes here,
but I shall be visiting Arfst next week.